Easter Weekend

With Spring Break/General Conference/Easter all happening on the same weekend we decided to make a pilgramage to Zion. ya right! We drove to Utah to be with Damon's parents for Easter and to attend a session of conference in Salt Lake. The boys, including Damon, had never been. We drove to St. George, spent the night, left Friday for Provo, leaving Lily with Nana, and spent the night and Pookie and Aaron's.

We loved running around BYU and seeing all the new buildings and remembering the good old days. The boys think it is great that they can get Jamba's while on campus. We ran into the boys babysitter from Portland as well as Damon's cousin's kid.
Saturday morning we drove up to Salt Lake to attend the Sat. Morning session of conference. What a great experience that was. It was freezing. We aren't used to anything below 50*F. We ran into friends from San Diego. We also got to be in the same room with the Prophet and all the leaders of our church. It was an amazing experience. The boys were quite done with it after an hour though. They suffered silently which their parents were grateful for.
We met up with Dara and Brian on the way back to St. George. That night we decorated eggs and had some yummy Chinese food. Sunday brought the Easter Bunny, more conference, yummy food and family. Oh and an egg hunt in the back yard. We took the kids on a walk around Nana's neighborhood too. That is always fun.
Our drive back on Monday was uneventful except of the wind and rain. We are glad to be home, but glad we could make that short trip up there.

Look at that face. She is such a poser. Love my Lily flower though!

Spring Break Fun-week 1

This week has been busy, but fun. We have had neighborhood play dates outside, inside and all about. We went out to lunch at McDonald's. We got the oil changed, made strawberry jam, had cub scouts, baseball practice and piano and our big adventure for the week was going to the world famous San Diego Zoo (great! what could be worse than San Diego?!).

The kids had a great time at the zoo as we again teamed up as the Afualo/Shoff tribe. We saw lots of animals that were all out for show today. Monkeys performed, hippos danced, snakes slithered, crocodiles swam, gorillas ran, meerkats stared, lions showed us nature (why is it always lions for me and no, I did not take this picture on purpose. it just kind of happened) and the elephants got a bath. It was quite the adventure at the zoo today.

Our next big adventure-road trip to SLC for General Conference and Easter with Nana. It doesn't get better than that!

Blue and Gold Forever!

This was another special Pack meeting for the cub scouts. Noah worked really hard and earned his bear badge before April. That was his goal. He was very excited tonight. It was the Blue and Gold dinner. It was catered by El Pollo Loco. Yum. We all had to make cakes and decorate them for the dinner. We made our cake blue and gold. Noah won the award for best penmanship. A lot of our friends were there with their boys so we actually had a great time. Unfortunately the kids were all up late because we were out late and I haven't gotten enough quiet time and now it's time to go to bed and I am not feeling very unwound. Enjoy the pictures.

A New Season

It's the start of a new season. Spring is definitely in the air. The flowers are bright, the trees are popping and new leaves are coming open. Spring for me also means another triathlon season is starting.

I started off the new season with the "fun" triathlon. I call it fun because it is a super easy triathlon that doesn't require a lot of training or a lot of mental prep. There aren't any sharks to freak out about, any forces of nature to contend with and its distances are short. This is definitely a triathlon for beginners or for people who just want to have a good time.

I convinced two friends to do it with me this year and we started our journey Friday evening by driving up to Pasadena. We stopped in Orange County to eat at Cafe Rio. We had yummy pork salads. After hitting minimal traffic we arrived at our hotel (more like motel) and camped out for the night. Not a lot of sleeping was had and conversation was aplenty. Like usual, sleep was hard for me before the race. When the alarm clock rang at 5:50am I felt like a mushed bag of potato chips.

After dragging the girls out of bed, well, only one of them, and slightly getting lost we made it to the Rose Bowl. We set up our bikes and were wondering around killing the last hour before the race started and what to our wondering eyes did appear, why a movie star, who has eyes that can leave an impression on you. I actually didn't recognize him, but I did note his eyes. Erika was the one who noticed him first. It was James Marsden, or Scott from X-Men, or Prince Edward from Enchanted. We chased him down, well Heather did, in a parking lot, like crazy stalkers and eventually got our pictures with him. I am sure that is what he wanted to do at 7am when he has his first triathlon to do. He was cordial enough and joked about the race. I saw him once more after the race, but didn't say anything. He actually did pretty will for his first tri and came in at 1:02. I know, I looked. I couldn't help myself.

He definitely looks better without a hat on and I definitely look better when it isn't 7am and I have had no sleep and haven't tried to look ok because I am doing a race, not going to an after party. Why do I look so much bigger than he does?

The race was great. I really wanted to get 1:09, but came in at 1:12:36. It was still a lot of fun. After we got all cleaned up we headed down to Old Town Pasadena for some lunch and shopping. We ate at this little french cafe and then had dessert at Pinkberry. After we arrived home I literally crashed. I went right to bed and woke up around 10pm to eat something and then went back to bed.

You can tell I am exhausted and just want to go home in that picture, but I did enjoy my pinkberry.

I am glad I did another triathlon, but am not sure when the next one will be. I just can't stomach the amount of time that it takes to prepare for one right now and after you have done one with someone famous, how could the others compare? For those who care, I place 14 in my age group and 63 out of 385 woman. Not to shabby.

Field Trip Thursday

It's been a while since I did a field trip Thursday post. We still have had them, I just haven't posted them. We've had play dates, Dr. Seuss Night at school, library and duck feeding and more play dates. This Field Trip Thursday was special because the kid's cousins, Robyn and Riley were here. Grandpa is here too. They have been here for a couple days while their mom, and my mom are in England. We picked up the kids at school and headed West. On the way west we stopped by the golden arches and attacked their dollar menu.

We headed for La Jolla Shores and had a lovely picnic lunch. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, but it was windy. The kids didn't let that stop them from sticking their feet in the water and digging all in the sand. It was a messy day, but we had a lot of fun. We love SanD iego.

1.5 weeks til spring break. Time to blow off the dust from the cruise director hat! Any suggestions?

A wonderful Visit

Our wonderful Nana came to visit this past week. The kids were so excited that she was here. They loved her and had her read to them and play with them and take them out to get treats. We also got to celebrate her birthday while she was here. She got a special surprise visitor when Papa showed up at our house too. We had a lovely dinner at Chevy's. We came home and had 4 yummy cakes from NothingBundtCakes. Those are the yummiest cakes.


Nana & Papa left this morning and everyone is blue. Hopefully they will come back soon. Thanks Nana and Papa for the visit.

The Olympics

What are the Olympics? Is it the ultimate test of the world's most elite athletes? Maybe. Is it the world's biggest competition? Sort of. What the Olympics means to our family is unity. We sat around and cheered on the Americans. We also cheered on all the other athletes. We were sad with tumbles, falls, flipped bobsleds, and bad skiing conditions. We were touched by the stories of perseverance and hardship. We learned more about curling and Nordic skiing. Damon and I also lost lots of sleep during the games. Did we enjoy them? Yes. Can we wait for the next one in Sochi, Russia? Yes, but we are sure glad there is another one in two years.

My kids favorite Olympic moment... Shawn White and snowboarding. My favorite moment...watching the Canadian figure skater win bronze after her mother had passed away a few days before. Damon's favorite moment...discovering curling. He is so hooked now.

The Olympics mean different things to different people, but it is a time where borders, country histories or present feelings are all put aside while the torch (which was amazing) is lit.